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On the flip side when I plan out my content in advance it's actually much easier and less stressful. In fact, planning your blog content has the following advantages:
Related read: How I Plan My Blog And Social Content
Keeps you on track
The plan for your blog content should map back to your blog goals. By putting together a plan you can track the progress you're making toward your goals.It gives you something to refer back to. When I plot out the topics I'm going to be writing on and my related post ideas I can prioritize which ones I'll work on first and when they need to be completed.
Improves the quality of your content
I've found when I plan out several weeks' worth of content, I don't have to struggle to come up with content or scramble to create it. This leaves me more time to outline, write and tweak my posts. I've also found myself writing longer, more detailed, and engaging posts when I don't feel like I'm pressed for time.Helps you plan for vacations and holidays
When I plan out my content I can make sure I have posts going live on schedule. This is helpful when I'm traveling for work, on vacation, or sick. I can also plan and prepare seasonal content without having to create it at the last minute and possibly miss out on additional traffic.Related read: 7 Ways To Prepare Your Blog For the Holidays
Let you provide better content
I've realized that in my first year of blogging, the majority of the blog posts I did were wash day posts for my hair. They weren't my more popular posts either, my infographic and tip posts were, but I didn't do as many of them. If I had been planning my content I would have seen that my content wasn't varied and also wasn't what my audience wanted.Overall it saves time. Despite knowing and seeing these benefits I have to admit that I'll typically plan one month and not plan the next three. I'm finding that it really comes down to me being disciplined and creating a plan that is attainable for me.
So, how do you plan blog content? By creating an editorial calendar.
To create an editorial calendar the first thing you'll need is a calendar or content management system. I'm blogging on a budget so I don't use a content management system as they come with a monthly fee. Instead, I use Google Calendar because it's free, easy to use, and easy to access. Some other options for an editorial calendar include
- Calendar printables
- CoSchedule
- WordPress Editorial Calendar (if you're on the WordPress platform)
- Google Sheets
The editorial calendar
Before filling out your editorial calendar it can be helpful to reflect on the following- The focus of your blog or your blog niche
- Your blog mission statement
- Your blog goals
- Your list of blog categories
- How often do you want to post
- Your social media selections
- Any special holidays or seasons you want to cover
- The types of content you want to use (e.g. written posts, videos, infographics, printables, etc.)
Thinking through all of these things will help you get your plan all laid out. Now it's time to create the calendar. When I plan I
- Plot my categories against my weekly blog posting schedule
- List out a topic within each category
- Determine the type of content for that topic. The type of content I provide on my blog is usually a written post, infographic, tip, video, or some combination of the four
Related read: The Benefits Of Pre-scheduling Your Blog Posts
You can see in the picture of my Google Calendar I color code my categories which correspond to the colors I use on my site. As you can see from this incomplete calendar I still struggle with being consistent with my planning and getting it down on paper. But when I do it, I find it to be very helpful and I create my best content.
Content promotion
The planning doesn't stop with creating the content. Next is a promotion plan. Seriously, you don't want to spend all that time creating your content and then have no one read it. Planning your promotion also helps you stay consistent. It helps keep your followers engaged and can help create consistent traffic to your blog.There are many ways and places you promote your blog. Some are paid and others are free. For now, I'm going to touch on the top free ones that bloggers use - social media and Pinterest.
Related read: 7 Of The Best Places To Promote A Beauty Blog
Social media
Social media is an important part of blogging as it can be used for content promotion. The best part about using social media for content promotion is it's free! Yes, you can place paid ads on several of them, but building a following and getting your content shared doesn't need to cost anything.There are hundreds of social sites for you to choose from. There are popular sites such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter. Depending on your blog focus there may also be smaller more niche social sites you could leverage.
For the purposes of this post, I'm going to just hit on a couple of social sites - Facebook and Twitter.
You can create a business page for your blog which is slightly similar to a personal page except you get access to more features. Features such as setting up a store where people can buy products you sell and buying Facebook ads.
Groups are really popular on Facebook and if used strategically they can be a good way to promote your blog. I've joined hair, beauty, and lifestyle groups where I share my content and interact with other bloggers. Not only does it help me gain new followers and readers but I sometimes get new content ideas from questions or discussions that happen in the groups.
Twitter has been a test-and-learn social platform for me and while I haven't always seen great success, I've learned some great best practices for using the site.
- Don't just share your content, share the content of other bloggers and brands. Sometimes bloggers and brands will like or retweet your posts with their content. This can garner additional impressions and followers.
- Include images in your posts. I've found that my posts with images get me the most impressions and engagement.
- Engage with those you follow and your followers. I try to like and retweet a few posts from those I follow each day.
- Use hashtags relevant to your post and blog focus. I limit myself to no more than three hashtags a post. More than that and it can get overwhelming.
- Pay attention to your Twitter analytics as it can tell you a lot about the types of posts that get the most engagement.
Here are some tips I found and have started employing to get better results from Pinterest:
- Have boards that closely match your blog focus
- Post content that closely aligns with your blog focus
- Don't just post your content, post the content of others
- Create vertical Pinterest friendly images for your blog posts
- Use a pin scheduler like Tailwind so you're posting at optimal times throughout the day
Building a following
Yep. You read this right. Before you launch your blog, you should build a following. This is something I wish I'd done before launching my blog and even before my rebrand.You can do this by setting up your social profiles, following others, and posting content. Since you won't have any of your own content yet you can post the content of others that align with the focus of your soon-to-come blog.
That way when you do launch your blog you'll have some followers ready to read and share your content.
How are you planning and promoting your new blog?
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